Cover Wars: Lawyers, Guns & Money
Lawyers, Guns & Money is the closing track on Warren Zevon’s seminal 1978 classic Excitable Boy
The Contestants:
Widespread Panic: According the Everyday Companion the Southern jam titans first covered LG&M all the back in 1987, playing the song semi-regularly for a two-year period before shelving it for almost all of the ’90s – busting it out just twice for Halloween shows. The song returned back into rotation in 2000, and has stayed there since. Source: 10-4-2010
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READ ON for more covers of Lawyers, Guns & Money…
Max Creek have been playing the tune as far back as February of ’89 – at least that’s the earliest version found on the Live Music Archive. This take features the old school jamband bringing a slow and loose, almost Dead-inspired take on the tune – which makes sense since it segues right into Sugar Magnolia. Source: 1989-06-14
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Meat Loaf
This one caught me a bit by surprise, but the theatrical rocker included a cover of the song during the taping of his 1998 VH1′s Stoytellers episode. This version comes from The Loaf’s appearance on Late Night With David Letterman in ’99.
Next, we’ve got one from Zevon’s longtime pal Jackson Browne, who actually co-produced Excitable Boy with Waddy Wachtel. This spontaneous version comes from a 2008 concert when an audience member shouted out a request to play something from Warren, and he happily obliged.
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Here’s another version which is embeddable…
Let’s get a little indie here, with the Magnolia Electric Co., who are a band you should know if you’re a fan of Buffalo Springfield and Neil Young’s early studio output. The band must have been listening to Zevon quite a bit in ’09, as they covered not only LG&E, but Excitable Boy as well. Source: 2009-10-12
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The Wallflowers: The roots-rockers covered Lawyers, Guns & Money for the Zevon tribute album Enjoy Every Sandwich: Songs of Warren Zevon,
The title of the album came from an interview Warren did on Late Night With David Letterman. The talk show host asked Zevon if there was anything he understood now, facing his own mortality, that he didn’t before. Zevon replied, “Just how much you’re supposed to enjoy every sandwich.” Fittingly this version, with Zevon’s son Jordan sitting in, comes from their appearance on Letterman.
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Last week, Andy Kahn guest-wrote Cover Wars when he looked at 10 covers of Long Black Veil. Unsurprisingly, The Band has emerged the clear winner.
And just for good measure we couldn’t leave you without Warren’s take on it…
Jeffrey Greenblatt
Jeff joined the Hidden Track team full-time in 2008 and helps guide the site in his role as Managing Editor and Social Media Coordinator. Each week Jeff pens Pullin' 'Tubes, Tour Dates and Bloggy Goodness in addition to features, video posts and more. Jeff is a graduate of The George Washington University ('98), with a degree in Journalism, and has worked in the media and technology industry for the likes of MTV, VH1, A&E and Joost.
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Umm… what about Hank Williams, Jr.’s cover?
how’s about those nihilists we just love….GUTMLebowski?
check out their track from Awesometown II on archive.
http://www.archive.org/details/gutml2009-05-09.mk21.nbox.eq.flac24
also check out the Wendy with Lo Faber of GSW sitting in. So nice.
Lebowski owned this song. Too bad they broke up over such a silly squabble as penis girth.
Nothing wrong with any of these bands or players in their own rights, but nobody can touch Warren Zevon on this song. It’s his song in every way. His take is HARD, harder than any of the others, and I’m kind of surprised that no one really got that. Maybe you just have to be Warren Zevon. One of a kind.
Great stuff. I was looking for the best released version of this song by WZ. What is interesting about all of these versions is how much MORE ENERGY Warren’s version has. Even the weird sax guy adds to what I have previously heard! Great stuff. Thanks for posting. BTW could not see Meatloaf’s version its been pulled.